Huey Tuesday: “I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock ‘n’ Roll)”

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HUEY TUESDAY – a weekly dig through the archives of the only 80s band more interested in workin’ for a livin’ than being hip. But for every monster pop single, there was a deep album detour into new wave, ska, blues, reggae, a capella and instrumentals. Hip to be square, indeed! Have you really heard the News?

“I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock ‘n’ Roll)” is a song written by Nick Lowe and first popularized by Dave Edmunds. It was released on Edmunds’s 1977 album Get It and a year later in a live version by Nick Lowe’s Last Chicken in the Shop on Live Stiffs Live.

But in 1985, when it was released by Nick Lowe and his Cowboy Outfit on the album The Rose of England, it was enough to give fans of the News a case of FM whiplash – especially those coming off the breakthrough of “Power of Love” from Back to the Future.

That’s because the “Cowboy Outfit” was actually … The News! Huey Lewis produced the track, and the band performed the song, down to the distinctive background vocals and Huey’s harp.